Grand Central Terminal Turns 100 Today.

[n2ize]

Eh, the LIRR must have cleaned up its act, when I was riding some years ago stations left a lot to be desired and Jamaica was the pits. NJT still leaves much to be desired overall but some stations are great like Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken. It's been restored and well kept, ferry service is back too. I have lots of pictures showing the finer points but these two give a good overview, one literally and on the right is Frank Sinatra Park.

That's because you don't have the vandalism of the 1970's. During the 70's the thing to do was to break stuff and mess stuff up. It was so prevalent that they stopped bothering to fix anything because no sooner would they fix it someone would break it all over again.

I remember the local station near my home. At night some vandals went into the tunnel with a crowbar or some leveraging tool and literally pried the light fixtures off of the ceiling (they were drilled into concrete) and then they smashed the heck out of them. Eventually they had to put up new fixtures with heavy steel mesh cages around them to prevent the vandals from destroying them. And even that didn't stop the damage entirely.

I once saw an enraged vandal literally pick up a parked car and throw it down the steps.

[N2NH]

Eh, the LIRR must have cleaned up its act, when I was riding some years ago stations left a lot to be desired and Jamaica was the pits. NJT still leaves much to be desired overall but some stations are great like Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken. It's been restored and well kept, ferry service is back too. I have lots of pictures showing the finer points but these two give a good overview, one literally and on the right is Frank Sinatra Park.

Great pictures. I used to work across the Hudson River from there. Interesting place. The West of Hudson MNR trains Terminate there. Or you can Xfer at Secuacus Jct for Penn Station. Haven't tried that yet. It does show that train stations are hardly the nightmares that CNN claims they are. Methinks he hasn't rode a train in a few decades.

[kb2vxa]

"That's because you don't have the vandalism of the 1970's."
True, but the only vandalism I saw was NYCTA subway cars "tagged" so badly I couldn't see the car for the paint or tell where one mess started and the other began with one atop another. That was fixed with new cars that don't take paint, it washes off with water. What I saw was decades of neglect even at Hoboken where the station was falling apart, literally. It was fairly clean but others were filthy and stank of urine.

"Great pictures."
Thanks but credit where credit is due, thanks go to professionals who post on the web where I stole them. Never mind copyright issues, I never made a dime off any of them. Yes, Lackawanna Terminal is an interesting place and has interesting places like Grand Central the public never sees. Before the ferry terminal upstairs was restored I cautiously explored every unlocked door and passageway particularly behind doors marked "authorized personnel only" and unlike today never encountered a railroad bull.

Everything that doesn't go to New York Penn goes to Hoboken and the newly opened Secaucus Junction is just that, if it's Diesel you transfer to electric for New York. Then if you don't take a ferry there's PATH into New York 33rd Street and WTC. Also on the Jersey side there are Newark Penn and Journal Square, Jersey City. Speaking of Jerky City the neighborhood that always perplexed me is Comunipaw. What the heck is a Comuni?

Of course the CNN reporter doesn't know what he's talking about, why to you think it's called...